Jelena Radjenović

Institut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua

Engineering Sciences

Graduated in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the University of Belgrade´s Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Serbia, in 2004. PhD in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Barcelona in July 2009 with “cum laude” distinction. 2009-2014: Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), University of Queensland, Australia. November 2014-onwards: Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Girona, Spain. Awarded several prestigious fellowships: Queesland Early Career Smart Future Fellowship, Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship, Ramon y Cajal fellowship. 2017-2022: ERC Starting Grant ELECTRON4WATER.

Research interests

I am an expert in chemical and electrochemical advanced (waste)water treatment, with a focus on the fate of chemical contaminants. My research aims to increase the efficiency and resilience of water treatment and reuse through the development of sustainable, energy-efficient and renewable energy-driven technologies.Over the last years, I have been investigating electrochemical treatment systems and surpassing their major limitation - low current efficiency - by integrating them with engineered, low-cost carbon nanostructured materials in a nanoelectrochemical system (NES). In addition, I am developing a hybrid nano-biotreatment based on accelerating the redox microbial reactions in anaerobic respiration by the addition of low-cost carbon nanomaterials. Electron shuttling by graphene derivatives drastically enhances the removal of pollutants and may improve the quality and quantity of the produced biogas, thus generating a positive energy balance.

Selected research activities

In collaboration with Prof Wolfgang Gernjak, I have been working on the development of UV/peroxidisulfate process for the removal of carcenogic disinfection byproduct, N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), from water. Furthermore, we have elucidated the role of water matrix in the degradation of persistent organic pollutants by the abovementioned process. We have two research manuscripts currently under evaluation for publication.

I have initiated a large, pilot-scale study of electrochemical system for the extraction and recovery of nitrogen from waste streams (i.e., anaerobic digestate, urine). The project is led by Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology.